Comparative Analysis of Free IT Monitoring Platforms. Review of SolarWinds, CA Technologies, and Nagios IT monitoring platforms

Transcription

1 Comparative Analysis of Free IT Monitoring Platforms Review of SolarWinds, CA Technologies, and Nagios IT monitoring platforms The new CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap solution offers users broad access to monitor and manage up to 30 devices for free. The following analysis compares Snap to similar free or trial IT monitoring platform versions: SolarWinds free trial versions of four IT monitoring modules as well as Nagios XI. Apprize360 Intelligence, INC. October 15, 2013 A Special Report Commissioned by CA Technologies

2 Overview and Summary CA s Nimsoft Monitor is a premier IT monitoring solution that has deep monitoring functionality in a single, unified architecture. CA now offers a free version of Nimsoft Monitor, appropriately named CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap, or Snap for short. What is unique about this offering is that it is not a trial version. CA offers customers usage of Snap for up to 30 devices. This includes monitoring of servers, applications, databases, websites, and network and storage devices with unlimited monitoring frequency. There is no automated discontinuation of the platform 30 or 60 days post-installation. Snap makes it easy for a company to evaluate the Nimsoft monitoring technology without a set time limitation. Or, if you have 30 devices or less, you can use Snap as your primary monitoring tool without a paid license. Snap offers users the following: Key Study Findings Snap is free: no time limitations on usage Snap is a single, unified solution: not several point products integrated together with a common GUI Snap supports unlimited monitoring of 30 devices Free usage Monitor up to 30 devices, with unlimited monitors per device Server, application, network, database, storage & website monitoring No limit to the frequency device monitoring Easy-to-deploy installation, configuration and a directed user experience (i.e. Snap Tips, howto videos, etc.) notifications Intuitive dashboards, reports & alarm views Community support To better understand how Snap stacks up to other free IT monitoring platforms, Apprize360 Intelligence reviewed the installation and configuration processes of the following six platforms: CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor (SAM) SolarWinds Virtualization Manager SolarWinds Storage Manager Nagios XI The comparative analysis was performed using a Dell PowerEdge T620 Server with 768GB of memory across 24 DIMM slots and 64 TB of disk space. For Snap and the four SolarWinds platforms, the operating system used was Microsoft Server For Nagios XI, we used the same server partitioned to run Linux Red Hat Enterprise. In all cases, configuration and discovery was completed on a network with 30 devices. Downloads occurred using 40 MBPS Internet speeds. 2 P age

3 Snap Configuration & Installation Process Snap s installation process is fundamentally different from the other products reviewed. True to its name, Snap is a snap to install and configure. CA made sure that everything, from the product download to the installation process of Snap, is seamless and easy to perform. CA used the InstallAnywhere platform for Snap installation, which makes the installation and execution of Snap quick and easy. During the installation process, Snap displays on-screen hints to prepare you for configuration and device discovery. Nagios and SolarWinds utilize a flat transfer of a ZIP file, which requires separate execution and manual file extraction. While no download or installation errors occurred with any of the platforms, the Snap download and installation process was by far the easiest to use of all the platforms assessed. After the initial installation, configuration of Snap continues to be true to its name. Out of the 6 platforms reviewed, Snap was by far the easiest and quickest to configure. The out-of-the-box automated discovery process took only a few minutes to identify and log all 30 devices. After the automated discovery process was completed, Snap immediately began monitoring devices for performance, highlighting any network latency and individual device performance issues. It is one of the most intuitive and easy-to-use interfaces we have ever experienced for an IT management platform. The Snap Unified Service Manager dashboard gives you a complete view of your environment, allowing you to drill-down into specific areas of concern or interest. Within the dashboard, you can also identify device performance issues by geography, overall performance, and the latest alarms. The single dashboard provides a full unified view of your infrastructure and is easy to access throughout if you want to proactively review network performance. However, if you want to take a more reactive approach, the Snap alarms allow you to set specific thresholds for device and network performance. Snap will alert you through an alarm or notification of any performance related alarms. 3 P age

4 Reporting is one the most significant strengths of Snap. Reporting is completely interactive, allowing you to dragand-drop specific devices onto the reporting screen for immediate graphing. Reporting can be initiated by a specific device (or group of devices) or the quality of services (QoS). The advanced filtering capabilities enable granular reporting down to the specific probe level. Comparative Benchmark Results Apprize360 s assessment discovered several differences in the installation and configuration processes as well as in overall operations between the six platforms researched. Snap led with overall ease-of-installation, configuration, and operations as well as speed of download and installation. Snap, compared to SolarWinds and Nagios, is not a time limited trial. SolarWinds only allows you 30 days free use of their respective platforms while Nagios has a 60-day trial period. The full quantitative results can be found in Appendix A of this document beginning on page 8. Snap vs. SolarWinds All four assessed SolarWinds platforms use the same download and installation methods. SolarWinds requires users to download a ZIP file containing an auto-extractable application that requires manual activation. Unlike Snap, there is no guided installation wizard to help the user through the installation process. In addition, the SolarWinds platforms require several different steps to complete the installation. It took 43 minutes to download, install, configure, and discover devices with Snap. However, it took more than double the time to complete the same installation process with the platforms. Virtualization Manager and NPM both took the longest to deploy, requiring two hours before active network monitoring could begin. 4 P age

5 CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap NPM Storage Mgr Virtualization Mgr SAM Download 11 min 10 min 9 min 15 min 9 min Installation 22 min 65 min 45 min 75 min 45 min Configure 5 min 30 min 45 min 45 min 40 min Discovery 5 min 15 min 15 min 25 min 20 min Total Time to Monitor 43 minutes 120 minutes 114 minutes 120 minutes 114 min After the file is downloaded and the installation process ends, configuration of the various SolarWinds platforms differs slightly due to their individual purposes. One issue that was quickly apparent is that SolarWinds requires four separate platforms to meet the functionality found in the single instance of Snap. Having to deploy four separate platforms is not a very compelling value proposition. Rather than having to load, navigate, and analyze data from four separate platforms none of which in the trial versions are integrated together for dashboard analysis or reporting purposes Snap offers a single, unified dashboard. It is this type of easyto-use navigation that gives Snap a marked advantage over SolarWinds. While SolarWinds does offer a very robust support community (called Thwack ), the Snap community, called Snap Central - while currently small - is growing quickly. However, for immediate assistance, you can use Snap s embedded video support to learn best practices for installing, configuring, and monitoring with Snap with HD videos that are 1-2 minutes in length. Snap vs. Nagios XI Nagios XI is an open-source network monitoring platform that runs on Linux servers. Similar to SolarWinds, Nagios offers a free 60-day trial period with a fully functional license to Nagios XI. After 60 days, the user must then decide to pay the license fee to keep XI functional. Nagios XI is licensed on a per-monitoring server basis. License pricing is determined by the number of hosts (nodes) the user intends to monitor. There are no restrictions on the number of services that can be monitored with XI. Pricing starts at $1,995 for up to 100 hosts and includes support for 5 incidents. While Nagios XI is a relatively inexpensive solution, you have to be an experienced IT administrator to deploy and manage XI. Downloading Nagios XI was a multi-step process that lacked the guided process that Snap offered. After installation, the configuration process was highly technical, requiring manual development of discovery queries and manual alert generation without on-screen guidance. It took a total of 3 hours (180 minutes) to download, 5 P age

6 install, configure, and discover devices with Nagios XI compared to 43 minutes total with Snap for the same routine. Snap Nagios XI Download 11 min 15 min Installation 22 min 20 min Configure 5 min 120 min Discovery 5 min 25 min Total Time to Monitor 43 minutes 180 minutes Reporting is another area where Nagios XI is inferior to Snap. Report generation in Nagios requires the use of a report writer to generate reports on specific devices, alerts, and performance analysis. It is a multiple screen, multi-step process that takes time to set up and then generate the report. Nagios XI reports are heavily focused on node availability. Users can run a report summary of specific host availability as well as run nine pre-canned available reports, including a summary, event log, notification log, and bandwidth usage report. Nagios dashboards are another area where Snap has a comparative advantage. The main dashboard does provide information on the overall network performance state and alerts on performance issues. However, Nagios has no single, unified dashboard to understand network health on one screen. Instead, Nagios utilizes multiple dashboards that are categorized by the specific host or service group. Summary and Conclusions CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap is an easy-to-use and quick-to-deploy IT monitoring solution. Of the six solutions assessed, the Snap installation and configuration process was the easiest and quickest to get monitoring. There are several things that make Snap unique: Monitoring functionality is hosted in a single, unified platform. It takes four SolarWinds products to equal the functionality in a single Snap platform. Snap is free. Unlike the other vendors offerings, there is no 30 or 60-day time limitation. Snap s guided installation and configuration process was a breeze, allowing for the correct decisions to be made once at the time during initial configuration. Snap s drag-and-drop reporting made deep device reporting easy and quick to perform. Of all 6 platforms analyzed, Snap s discovery process was the quickest to identify devices and begin active monitoring. 6 P age

7 CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap NPM Table: Total Time to Monitor Storage Mgr Virtualization Mgr SAM Nagios XI Download 11 min 10 min 9 min 15 min 9 min 15 min Installation 22 min 65 min 45 min 75 min 45 min 20 min Configure 5 min 30 min 45 min 45 min 40 min 120 min Discovery 5 min 15 min 15 min 25 min 20 min 25 min Total Time to Monitor 43 minutes 120 minutes 114 minutes 120 minutes 114 min 180 minutes Minutes Graph: Total Time to Monitor Snap SW NPM SW Storage SW VM SW SAM Nagios XI Download Install Configure Discovery 7 P age

8 Appendix A: Comparative Benchmarking Results Topics Description CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap SolarWinds NPM SolarWinds SAM Availability Installation Configuration Ease of Use Performance Diagnosis & Resolution Reporting Self Guided Community Score Notes Score Notes Score Notes Method of Delivery 5 Unlimited for life 3 30 day trial 3 30 day trial Trial Limitations 3 Limited to 30 devices 5 Full version, no limitation 5 Full version, no limitations Download time 4 11 min 4 10 min 4 9 min Installation Time 5 22 min 3 65 min 3 45 min Download Size GB MB MB Level of Installation Difficulty 5 EASY; Wizard-based 3 Multiple steps 3 Multiple Steps Total number of installation errors 5 Zero 5 Zero 5 Zero Total Time to Configure 5 5 min 4 30 minutes 4 40 min Ease of configuration 5 EASY; Wizard-based 4 Intelligent alert configuration 4 Manual, time consuming Overall Ease of Use 5 EASY 4 MEDIUM; Prior IT mgt experience MEDIUM; Prior experience 4 needed with IT mgt needed Ease of reporting performance of 5 EASY 4 MEDIUM 4 MEDIUM components Network Discovery 5 5 MIN 4 15 Min 3 20 min Performance Visualization 5 HIGH VISIBILITY 5 HIGH VISIBILITY 5 HIGH VISIBILITY Overall performance 5 HIGHEST PERFORMANCE 5 HIGH PERFORMANCE 5 HIGH PERFORMANCE Dashboard performance 5 HIGHEST PERFORMANCE 5 HIGH PERFORMANCE 5 HIGH PERFORMANCE Performance issue identification 5 IMMEDIATE 5 IMMEDIATE 5 IMMEDIATE Guided workflow for problem discovery 5 STRONG 2 PARTIAL (In Comparison) 2 PARTIAL (In Comparison) Integration Level of unification 5 Single, unified platform 1 4 separate platforms 1 4 separate platforms Quantity of Reports 5 HIGH NUMBER OF REPORTS 4 Several pre-canned reports 4 Tabular reports Dashboards 5 SINGLE DASHBOARD 5 OOTB Dashboards 5 Static dashboards Total Time To Monitor Guided support during installation 5 STRONG Wizards 3 Limited Installation Guidance 3 Limited guidance Community 3 Fast growing support community 5 Total time required for register, download, configure, discover, & begin monitoring 5 Fastest time to monitor at 43 minutes (170% faster than ) 3 Large & active Thwack support community 120 (two hours) minutes from register to monitoring 5 4 Large & active Thwack support community 114 minutes from register to monitoring TOTAL Score 95% 109 Out of % 91 out of % 91 out of 115 Table Legend: 1= Least, 5=Highest

9 Topics Description CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap SolarWinds Virtualization Mgr SolarWinds Storage Mgr Score Notes Score Notes Score Notes Method of Delivery 5 Unlimited for life 3 30 day trial 3 30 day trial Availability Trial Limitations 3 Limited to 30 devices 5 Full version, no limitations 5 Full version, no limitations Download time 5 11 min 4 15 min 5 9 min Installation Time 5 22 min 3 75 min 4 45 min Download Size GB GB VMware/ 1.4 GB Hyper-V MB windows Installation Level of Installation Multiple Steps but straight 5 EASY; Wizard-based 3 Multiple Steps 4 Difficulty forward Total number of installation errors 5 Zero 5 Zero 5 Zero Configuration Total Time to Configure 5 5 min 4 45 min 4 45 min Ease of configuration 5 EASY; Wizard-based 4 Highly Manual, time consuming 4 Manual, time consuming Overall Ease of Use 5 EASY 4 Multiple screens with dashboards 4 MEDIUM; Prior experience with IT mgt needed Ease of Use Ease of reporting Data is there, overwhelming & 5 EASY 4 performance difficult to scale back 4 MEDIUM Network Discovery 5 5 min 4 25 min 4 15 min Performance Visualization 5 HIGH VISIBILITY 4 Can force view into graphic format 5 HIGH VISIBILITY Overall performance 5 HIGHEST PERFORMANCE 5 HIGH PERFORMANCE 5 HIGH PERFORMANCE Performance Dashboard performance 5 HIGHEST PERFORMANCE 5 HIGH PERFORMANCE 5 HIGH PERFORMANCE Diagnosis & Performance issue Took 5 min before data storage 5 IMMEDIATE 4 identification capacity was alerted 5 IMMEDIATE Resolution Guided workflow for Provides recommendations to 5 STRONG 5 problem discovery remediate alert 2 PARTIAL (In Comparison) Integration Level of unification 5 Single, unified platform 1 4 separate platforms 1 4 separate platforms Quantity of Reports 5 HIGH NUMBER OF REPORTS 4 Canned reports; lots of data 3 Tabular reports Reporting Includes Benchmarks; Too much Dashboards 5 SINGLE DASHBOARD 4 data on one screen 3 Static dashboards Self Guided Guided support during installation 5 STRONG Wizards 3 Limited guidance 3 Limited guidance Community Total Time To Monitor Community 3 Fast growing support community 5 Total time required for register, download, configure, discover, & begin monitoring 5 Fastest time to monitor at 43 minutes (170% faster than ) Large & extremely active Thwack support community minutes (2 hours & 40 minutes) 4 5 Large & extremely active Thwack support community 114 minutes from register to monitoring TOTAL Score 95% 110 Out of % 90 out of % 92 out of P age

10 Topics Description CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap Nagios XI Score Notes Score Notes Availability Installation Configuration Ease of Use Performance Diagnosis & Resolution Reporting Self Guided Community Method of Delivery 5 Unlimited for life 4 60 day trial Trial Limitations 3 Limited to 30 devices 5 Full version, no limitations Download time 5 11 min 5 15 min Installation Time 5 22 min 5 20 min Download Size GB MB MSFT VM Source Installer=36mb Level of Installation Difficulty 5 EASY; Wizard-based 3 Multiple Steps Total number of installation errors 5 Zero 5 Zero Total Time to Configure 5 5 min minutes Ease of configuration 5 EASY; Wizard-based 3 Requires manual query development; manual alert generation without guidance Overall Ease of Use 5 EASY 4 Fairly easy to use Ease of reporting Requires a report writer, multiple steps, slow report performance of 5 EASY 3 generation components Network Discovery 5 5 MIN 4 25 min Performance Visualization 5 HIGH VISIBILITY 3 LIMITED VISIBILITY of all Components Overall performance 5 HIGHEST PERFORMANCE 4 RESPONSIVE Overall dashboard performance 5 HIGHEST PERFORMANCE 4 Limited dashboard but responsive Performance issue identification 5 IMMEDIATE 2 Slow to identify; Example took 10 min for alerting Guided workflow for problem discovery 5 STRONG 2 LIMITED Integration Level of unification 5 Single, unified platform 2 Requires additional modules (Fusion, XI, & Core) Quantity of Reports 5 HIGH NUMBER OF REPORTS 2 Uses report writing engine for all reports Dashboards 5 SINGLE DASHBOARD 3 Limited dashboard to include system behavior Total Time To Monitor Guided support during installation 5 STRONG Wizards 3 Limited guidance Community 3 Fast growing support community 5 Strong & active support community Total time required for register, download, configure, discover, & begin monitoring 5 Fastest time to monitor at 43 minutes (318% faster than Nagios) minutes (3 hours) from register to monitoring TOTAL Score 95% 110 Out of % 81 out of P age

11 A Special Report by Apprize360 Intelligence for CA Technologies All Rights Reserved. Copyright Apprize360 Intelligence, INC. San Francisco, CA